Alumni of the Year: Honoring Our Frontline Health Care Workers

Each year, Northwest University selects one of our graduates to receive the Alumni of the Year Award. This has been one of our favorite annual traditions since 1967. It’s a joy to recognize NU family members that are making an impact for Christ in their communities across the globe. Usually, this award is presented at our annual Homecoming and Family Weekend. Due to COVID-19, we had to postpone this event, which usually takes place in the fall, to a later date in February. Each recipient gets to give a speech at Homecoming and Family Weekend and at the President’s Banquet, and he or she is also highlighted in our alumni magazine, Passages. This year, we did not select an individual. Instead, we felt compelled to honor a very special group of people as collective recipients of the Alumni of the Year Award.

This year, we are honored to present the 2020 Alumni of the Year Award to all NU Alumni Frontline Health Care Workers.

The Alumni of the Year award is given to those who positively contribute to their community, continue to carry the call of God, and show outstanding work and initiative in their field. Those qualities are clearly displayed by the nurses, counselors, and other frontline health care workers who have been working so hard this year. We could not be more proud of this group and their courageous response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to sincerely thank our NU alumni who have been actively and diligently fighting against the spread of the virus. They have sacrificed much, and our community will always be grateful.

WHAT DOES YOUR “NEW NORMAL” LOOK LIKE?

This has been an interesting year in health care. During the past nine months, I have been overburdened by understaffing in urgent care; furloughed due to lack of patient visits; fielding thousands of phone notes, labs, and emails regarding COVID-19; learned telehealth to better access patients from the safety of their own homes; helped set up a respiratory illness clinic, and maintained my normal practice in primary care. On my urgent care clinic days, my colleague and I are divided between respiratory and non-respiratory clinics. My primary care clinic days are filled with a mix of in-person and telehealth appointments. I wear a mask and eye protection all day which has been good for preventing illness but makes assessing and connecting with patients more difficult. I am reading a lot more journal articles and updates as we continue to learn more about the virus at the center of the pandemic. Seeing the scientific method played out across the nation and the world as scientists hypothesize, study, revise, and make new recommendations has been intriguing and also the most trying time of my 12-year career. I feel torn between being grateful to work in a position where I help others and can maintain calm amongst colleagues and patients who are fearful, and wishing I worked in a safer profession where I could better quarantine and protect myself and my family. HOW HAVE YOU SEEN GOD AT WORK DURING THESE TRYING TIMES?

On a personal level, I have been more consistently in prayer throughout my day for my patients, community, colleagues, and family. In the spring, our clinic had few healthy patients coming in and so staff were asked to take leave and/or were furloughed. I was able to spend six weeks at home on furlough just as we welcomed another foster teen into our family. We now have had two teens recently added to our family and a one-year-old. The extra time with them was exactly what they needed in that season and what we needed as a family. God provided for our family’s emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual needs during this uncertain time. Next, my grandfather passed in August, and due to COVID we had been separated from seeing him and my grandmother for the prior five months. It was both an incredible loss and a celebration of his life and deep faith. With God’s provision we were able to bring my grandmother home on hospice to live with us in September so that we can spend her last months or years with her. The pandemic has brought our typically obligation-burdened family inward, and increased our time together as we have adjusted to a new normal. Lastly, after going through five years of infertility and medical intervention, we were blessed with a daughter in May 2019. God surprised us all with a miracle pregnancy in May 2020 and our son will be joining us around the new year. HOW CAN THE NU COMMUNITY BE PRAYING FOR YOU?

We in healthcare are generally exhausted. It has been nine months of more calls, emails, increased teaching, and daily concern for our patients, community, families, nation, and world. We have seen more fear, denial, death, lingering illness, and burnout of colleagues and staff during this time. Pray for encouragement, endurance, safety and health, and peace that surpasses understanding.

WHAT DOES YOUR “NEW NORMAL” LOOK LIKE?

This year was one of the most difficult years in 25 years of operating eldercare facilities. We had to adapt rapidly and implement drastic measures in our geriatric nursing work with the most vulnerable population: seniors. Yet, as hard as it was for our team to do all the new training, and the daily extra work required to keep everyone healthy and safe, the most difficult “new normal” is for our patients who are isolated from their loved ones who are not allowed to visit them in person. We’ve implemented creative ways, using new technology to keep the patients connected to their families, their friends and community, yet we all hope that this crisis will soon be over and families can be once again reunited!

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN GOD AT WORK DURING THESE TRYING TIMES?

We have witnessed God’s grace and love for us in supernatural ways this year! Our family has been well and healthy during this pandemic, which allowed us to care for our teams, our patients, and clients alike.

In our international ministry, we have seen God do some miraculous work in Kenya and Uganda. All of our 18 different locations have been protected and all of our students, church members and pastors, teaching and medical staff have been healthy during this pandemic season for the past nine months. The generosity of our family, friends, and donors allowed us to make and provide masks, soap bars, and emergency food kits to thousands of families in Kenya, Uganda, and Pakistan.

Also, during this pandemic and amidst lockdowns, in the past nine months we have planted two new churches in Uganda and two in Kenya, built and launched two Vital Solutions clinics and two Elevation Academy schools in very impoverished and marginalized communities. And the Board of Prisons Kenya asked for our help to provide emergency food for inmates in difficult prisons. 2020 has been the best year so far in our international ministry in Africa. HOW CAN THE NU COMMUNITY BE PRAYING FOR YOU?

Please pray for the ministry we’ve started in Pakistan: the Middle East is our new frontier! God opened a new door for ministry there, and we now have a team in place working through the logistics of launching this new work, and we pray for buildable land in the slums of Lahore, Pakistan, where we will build a clinic, a school, and a church so that we can continue on mission to “elevate JESUS to the people of Pakistan.”

WHAT DOES YOUR “NEW NORMAL” LOOK LIKE?

As a 2020 graduate, my cohort’s graduation experience was unlike any other. But the global pandemic made us all the more eager to enter the workforce and do our part as nurses. I currently work for a pediatric intensive care home-health agency. We work with clients, most often children, who would likely be in the intensive care unit of a hospital if they were not granted in-home nursing staff. Because we only work with one or two clients at a time, all of our efforts are focused on keeping that client safe. When patients are in a hospital, they often understand their risk for contracting additional illnesses from staff or other patients. However, when you work with clients in their homes, the incoming nurses are the primary risk for exposure. Our clients are very susceptible to COVID; contracting it could be life-threatening for many of them. My “new normal” requires me to make daily decisions that will positively affect my client and their family. We have extremely strict policies for wearing PPE and for understanding our risk outside the client’s home. Unfortunately, if any nurse on the team has a possible exposure to COVID, the family has to forfeit nursing care until results come back negative. Instances like this have already occurred multiple times since I started my job, and we have certainly been reminded that COVID is still active and present in our community. This adds a lot of pressure on us as a staff to ensure even our decisions outside of work are safe and responsible. I have had to say “no” a lot more in this season, but it has allowed me to gain a new understanding of patient advocacy. HOW HAVE YOU SEEN GOD AT WORK DURING THESE TRYING TIMES?

It is so evident to me that God is actively at work during these unprecedented times. As many challenges as COVID has presented, it has also created countless opportunities. In many ways, the community of health care workers is bonded unlike ever before. We have learned how to sacrifice for one another, see the bigger picture, and better prepare for our future. I have seen so much grace extended amongst staff, patients, and families as we have come to understand that much of our present situation is out of our control. We have learned to lay aside our own expectations and set even higher ones for ourselves in order to protect the people around us. I have heard countless stories lately about positive health care experiences even in the wake of this global pandemic. God is working in us and through us, and we are trusting him to sustain our ability to keep caring as He has called us to.

HOW CAN THE NU COMMUNITY BE PRAYING FOR YOU?

I think many nurses could use prayer for both patience and motivation. It can be very frustrating for health care workers when people do not take their health or the health of those around them seriously. Please pray that we would have patience in this long and hard fight against COVID as well as patience for a tired and restless community. Many of us need motivation to keep moving forward, to continue learning, and to foster our passion for our careers. I ask that the NU community pray for a renewed sense of value, belief, and hope as we continue to care for those in need.

HOW DID YOU ADAPT YOUR PRACTICE TO CATER TO PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PANDEMIC? This is not just a public health crisis, this is a mental health crisis. God never made humans to live in isolation. Loneliness and depression is on the rise. I have adapted my practice to ensure that I can really serve as a support, a safe space, a resource and an advocate for mental health during these challenging times. WHAT DOES YOUR “NEW NORMAL” LOOK LIKE? Thankfully both my work as a counselor and coach can be done 100% remotely. Although I miss being able to attune to my clients in-person (read their body language, look them in the eye, etc.) to foster the optimal therapeutic alliance, I am grateful for the ability to continue meeting without interruption despite the pandemic. Because my two- and four-year-old children are at home now and not in daycare, my “new normal” is a mix of meetings and calls in the morning and early afternoon. Then I spend the rest of the day with my kids! It’s a juggle and the noise management on calls (especially when I’m giving a big virtual training) is a challenge, but we are making it work.

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN GOD AT WORK DURING THESE TRYING TIMES? There is a myriad of “macro” level global and national events in our political, racial, and public health landscape that are impacting the “micro” level aspects of individuals. Although this has not been a comfortable year by any means, I believe God is surfacing up undealt with issues in individuals, communities, and even in the church, that need to be addressed.

HOW CAN THE NU COMMUNITY BE PRAYING FOR YOU? Clarity, wisdom, and influence as I seek to be a light and a witness especially in the corporate space.

HOW DID YOU ADAPT YOUR PRACTICE TO CATER TO PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PANDEMIC?

Thankfully I have still been able to do counseling via telehealth over the past eight months of working from home. I am so thankful that technological advances have allowed for us to continue working with clients especially during this time. WHAT DOES YOUR “NEW NORMAL” LOOK LIKE? In addition to my roles as professor and counselor, my two daughters are also attending school from home. I start my day with prayer and then a workout—selfcare has been essential for me especially in this season. After getting the kids ready for the day and online for their classes, I either start seeing clients from my home office, catch up on emails, grade papers/ assignments, or I meet with students, depending on the day. In between meetings or sessions, I help my daughters with their schoolwork, make lunches, and sometimes even get some playtime in with them. It’s definitely been a juggling act this year, but I’m so grateful to be able to do all of these important roles safely from home. HOW HAVE YOU SEEN GOD AT WORK DURING THESE TRYING TIMES? God has shown up in so many ways throughout the past many months. We have gone through some difficult health issues in our family this year and He has been with us and with our family members through these incredibly challenging times. In addition, He has continued to surround us with people who pray for, love on, and support us. And I feel His presence regularly when I start to feel overwhelmed or my heart is heavy. HOW CAN THE NU COMMUNITY BE PRAYING FOR YOU? I have been praying for steadfastness through this season. It’s so very important to me to fully show up for all of my roles, and I would just ask for prayer for strength, grace, and persistence. In addition, our family could use prayer for complete healing for our brother-in-law who is fighting stage 4 colon cancer. We have seen such amazing progress and are believing for complete healing!

WHAT DOES YOUR “NEW NORMAL” LOOK LIKE?

One “new normal” is having so many patients who have been hospitalized for weeks to months. The pandemic has made it challenging to place patients at assisted living and long-term care facilities, leading to prolonged hospital stays. We take care of the same people for months, and then realize that they have not seen an actual face or smile in all that time. This can be disheartening, but it also provides opportunities to be creative in the ways we care for people. In some ways, the lives of health care workers haven’t really changed that much: we go to work to care for the sick and hurting. In other ways, it is radically different: new policies each week, supply shortages, and being the only source of human interaction for people.

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN GOD AT WORK DURING THESE TRYING TIMES?

I see God at work in the generosity of others. Individuals, groups, and businesses have given incredibly to my health care organization. I see God in patients: those who choose hope in pain, who show kindness under stress, and joy when it doesn’t feel like there’s anything to celebrate. HOW CAN THE NU COMMUNITY BE PRAYING FOR YOU?

The NU community can be praying for renewal of strength. It takes so much more energy to care for people during these times. Complaining sometimes feels like an easier route. As believers we have access to a strength that is sufficient and a joy that never ends. Each day I pray for physical energy, and I pray to find delight in my work.

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Psalm 91:4 NIV